Standard couplings are presently in use in connection with sanitary applications. These couplings, however, exhibit some notable shortcomings. Most prominent is the tendency of the standard coupling to clog with solid materials. The clogging necessitates the disassembly of the coupling and its cleaning. When clogging occurs the coupling is no longer serving its purpose, namely, to transmit and conduct certain solids and fluids into a receptacle on an uninterrupted basis.
The primary limitation of a standard coupling in transmitting solids and fluids is the character of the internal passageways that the solids and fluids must pass through on their way to the receptacle. The standard couplings usually have valves and other internal impediments which comprise a tortuous path. A tortuous path is conducive to solids becoming entrapped in the coupling. Additionally, tortuous paths in a coupling or a valve also create pressure drops which necessitate a higher powered pump to maintain a given flow rate through the coupling or the valve.
The clogging of the couplings that are presently available defeats the purpose of a sanitary system. The purpose is defeated by having to disassemble the coupling in the system to clean the coupling, thereby exposing a person to the hazardous or contaminated waste. The increased number of diseases that have been recently identified as hazardous or infectious dictate the need for a better coupling to handle the fluids and solids.